tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82174611181903999192015-07-28T09:00:52.266+01:00Dorothy King's PhDivaDorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.comBlogger1721125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-62021084190259335942015-07-04T10:00:00.000+01:002015-07-04T10:00:02.161+01:00Benedict Arnold Plaque, London<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">It&#39;s become a family tradition to take visiting relatives to the Benedict Arnold plaque, and snap a photo of them in front of it ...<br><br>62 Gloucester Place, London W1U 8HW - <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/62+Gloucester+Pl,+London+W1U+8HW,+UK/@51.5187404,-0.1580655,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x48761acc72e3fcf7:0x14e51476442476c8?sa=X&amp;ei=ScInVLulFM_jaJqLgqgO&amp;ved=0CCIQ8gEwAA" target="_blank">map</a><br><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oQj_-ljgtfI/VB39o4czN6I/AAAAAAAAJEw/GQxQCPBkWic/s1600/IMG_0974.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oQj_-ljgtfI/VB39o4czN6I/AAAAAAAAJEw/GQxQCPBkWic/s1600/IMG_0974.PNG" height="640" width="640"></a></div><br></div><a href="http://phdiva.blogspot.com/2015/07/benedict-arnold-plaque-london.html#more">I want to know more ... -»</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-91522925957058817812015-07-04T08:54:00.000+01:002015-07-04T08:54:00.422+01:00Happy 4th of July!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ok4bg7RFyUQ/U_zKZgcYltI/AAAAAAAAHkU/-v0bu_vKoJ4/s1600/usa.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ok4bg7RFyUQ/U_zKZgcYltI/AAAAAAAAHkU/-v0bu_vKoJ4/s1600/usa.gif" height="432" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-44883161136961325342015-05-31T08:00:00.000+01:002015-05-31T08:00:00.172+01:00Today In 455: Petronius Maximus Died<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/fUsGoVE0KQ0" width="640"></iframe><br /><br />If you enjoyed this video by Adrian Murdoch, check out his book on The Emperors of Rome; <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I47PDJE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=B00I47PDJE&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-21&amp;linkId=QOXI26HRM6DYMZTF" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">Kindle UK</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;field-keywords=adrian%20murdoch%20emperors%20of%20rome&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;tag=phdiva-20&amp;url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;linkId=O4XHPY2ADILCYJBU" target="_blank">Kindle US</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=phdiva-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, etc </div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-24360350877790462692015-05-01T14:00:00.000+01:002015-05-01T14:00:00.393+01:00Today In 305: Maximian Abdicated<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">... as augustus in favour of Constantius Chlorus, and retired to southern Italy. He later made a come-back with his son Maxentius, although their civil war ultimately failed.<br /><br />They are both linked to the villa at Piazza Armerina - see <a href="http://phdiva.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/late-emperors-at-luxor-and-piazza.html" target="_blank">here</a> - and it seems likely to have dated to the period during which he retired.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2j3Ed3Q9pT8" width="640"></iframe><br /><br /><br />If you enjoyed this video by Adrian Murdoch, check out his book on The Emperors of Rome; <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I47PDJE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=B00I47PDJE&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-21&amp;linkId=QOXI26HRM6DYMZTF" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">Kindle UK</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;field-keywords=adrian%20murdoch%20emperors%20of%20rome&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;tag=phdiva-20&amp;url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;linkId=O4XHPY2ADILCYJBU" target="_blank">Kindle US</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=phdiva-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, etc </div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-56176995734837706522015-05-01T09:00:00.000+01:002015-05-01T09:00:04.555+01:00Today In 305: Galerius Became Emperor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/i6nrKE1JMgw" width="640"></iframe><br /><br /><br />If you enjoyed this video by Adrian Murdoch, check out his book on The Emperors of Rome; <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I47PDJE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=B00I47PDJE&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-21&amp;linkId=QOXI26HRM6DYMZTF" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">Kindle UK</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;field-keywords=adrian%20murdoch%20emperors%20of%20rome&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;tag=phdiva-20&amp;url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;linkId=O4XHPY2ADILCYJBU" target="_blank">Kindle US</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=phdiva-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, etc </div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-3394414228128485092015-04-16T09:00:00.000+01:002015-04-16T09:00:01.608+01:00Today In AD 69: Otho Died<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/a2EfmAxtd6U" width="640"></iframe><br /><br />If you enjoyed this video by Adrian Murdoch, check out his book on The Emperors of Rome; <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I47PDJE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=B00I47PDJE&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-21&amp;linkId=QOXI26HRM6DYMZTF" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">Kindle UK</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;field-keywords=adrian%20murdoch%20emperors%20of%20rome&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;tag=phdiva-20&amp;url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;linkId=O4XHPY2ADILCYJBU" target="_blank">Kindle US</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=phdiva-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, etc </div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-71893651041602888892015-04-12T08:00:00.000+01:002015-04-12T08:00:00.951+01:00Today In 467: Anthemius Became Emperor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/krizc_8DFwc" width="640"></iframe><br /><br />If you enjoyed this video by Adrian Murdoch, check out his book on The Emperors of Rome; <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I47PDJE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=B00I47PDJE&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-21&amp;linkId=QOXI26HRM6DYMZTF" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">Kindle UK</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;field-keywords=adrian%20murdoch%20emperors%20of%20rome&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;tag=phdiva-20&amp;url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;linkId=O4XHPY2ADILCYJBU" target="_blank">Kindle US</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=phdiva-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, etc </div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-52775294364868384682015-04-11T21:27:00.000+01:002015-04-11T21:27:23.152+01:00RIP Nimrud<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">This time the destruction is total, the site leveled by explosives.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PT85j1xA3d8?rel=0&amp;controls=0&amp;showinfo=0" width="853"></iframe></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-52680669760252159842015-04-11T10:00:00.000+01:002015-04-11T10:00:00.308+01:00Today in 145: Septimius Severus Born<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6iHWJyJ6BWM/Ti660I_1U1I/AAAAAAAAErc/f50J2uCklxA/s1600/Tondo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6iHWJyJ6BWM/Ti660I_1U1I/AAAAAAAAErc/f50J2uCklxA/s1600/Tondo.jpg" height="400" width="391" /></a></div>He was born in North Africa, but to a Roman family that had settled there - this has led to him being labelled an African emperor, and discussion of his race. I've discussed the only surviving painted portrait of him here: <a href="http://phdiva.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/ancient-painted-portraits-101.html">PhDiva: Ancient Painted Portraits 101.</a> Whether his skin was depicted darker because of his race or because it was the convention to depict men as darker than women I will leave up to the reader.<br /><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FqFvisVopSs" width="640"></iframe><br /><br />If you enjoyed this video by Adrian Murdoch, check out his book on The Emperors of Rome; <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I47PDJE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=B00I47PDJE&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-21&amp;linkId=QOXI26HRM6DYMZTF" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">Kindle UK</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;field-keywords=adrian%20murdoch%20emperors%20of%20rome&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;tag=phdiva-20&amp;url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;linkId=O4XHPY2ADILCYJBU" target="_blank">Kindle US</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=phdiva-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, etc</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-33150410266492040862015-04-08T11:07:00.001+01:002015-04-08T11:07:34.690+01:00British Museum: MacGregor Out<a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/news_and_press/press_releases/2015/neil_macgregor_to_step_down.aspx" target="_blank">British Museum - Neil MacGregor to step down</a>:<br /><br />Neil MacGregor to step down as Director of the British Museum at the end of 2015<div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-81383022779764312992015-04-08T11:00:00.000+01:002015-04-08T11:00:00.198+01:00Today In 217: Macrinus Became Emperor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/isk34RAK8vY" width="640"></iframe><br /><br />If you enjoyed this video by Adrian Murdoch, check out his book on The Emperors of Rome; <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I47PDJE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=B00I47PDJE&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-21&amp;linkId=QOXI26HRM6DYMZTF" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">Kindle UK</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;field-keywords=adrian%20murdoch%20emperors%20of%20rome&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;tag=phdiva-20&amp;url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;linkId=O4XHPY2ADILCYJBU" target="_blank">Kindle US</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=phdiva-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, etc </div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-72746970603479091732015-04-08T10:00:00.000+01:002015-04-08T10:00:01.264+01:00Today In 217: Caracalla Died<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">According to <span class="reference-text">Geoffrey of Monmouth, <i>Historia Regum Britanniae</i> <a class="extiw" href="http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_the_Kings_of_Britain/Book_5#2" title="s:History of the Kings of Britain/Book 5">5.2–3</a></span> Caracalla was a king Britain. According to Caracalla himself, he was the new Alexander the Great, hence his plans to invade Parthia. According to the Romans around him he was ... put it this way, he was assassinated. <br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FOeyibKwESw" width="640"></iframe><br /><br />If you enjoyed this video by Adrian Murdoch, check out his book on The Emperors of Rome; <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I47PDJE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=B00I47PDJE&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-21&amp;linkId=QOXI26HRM6DYMZTF" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">Kindle UK</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;field-keywords=adrian%20murdoch%20emperors%20of%20rome&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;tag=phdiva-20&amp;url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;linkId=O4XHPY2ADILCYJBU" target="_blank">Kindle US</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=phdiva-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, etc </div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-29718131764210679672015-04-04T16:46:00.000+01:002015-04-04T16:46:00.810+01:00Happy Passover!<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qmthKpnTHYQ?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-24332004563140519702015-04-04T13:03:00.001+01:002015-04-04T13:03:24.239+01:00ISIS at Hatra<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">A month or so back the Iraqi Minister of Culture was making wild claims ISIS had destroyed various archaeological sites including Hatra. That was wild propaganda, but ... well it unfortunately put ideas into the heads of ISIS and became a self-fulfilling prophecy and this video was released overnight:<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HEZ2cpuZ5_M?rel=0&amp;controls=0&amp;showinfo=0" width="853"></iframe><br /><br />The ISIS propaganda video of the damage at Mosul Museum was framed more as a sermon against icons, whilst this one is designed to look more like a video game. The damage is bad, and obviously in an ideal world archaeological sites would not be damaged, but this is the work of a few men and damage not complete inihilation.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-70690191424723643772015-04-01T08:00:00.000+01:002015-04-01T08:00:01.965+01:00Today In 457: Majorian Became Emperor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/gJwGaARMx-o" width="480"></iframe><br /><br />If you enjoyed this video by Adrian Murdoch, check out his book on The Emperors of Rome; <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I47PDJE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=B00I47PDJE&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-21&amp;linkId=QOXI26HRM6DYMZTF" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">Kindle UK</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;field-keywords=adrian%20murdoch%20emperors%20of%20rome&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;tag=phdiva-20&amp;url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;linkId=O4XHPY2ADILCYJBU" target="_blank">Kindle US</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=phdiva-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, etc </div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-23161079704789745902015-03-26T09:00:00.000+00:002015-03-26T09:00:01.280+00:00Today In 121: Marcus Aurelius Born<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/O6ZSi5MqsEE" width="640"></iframe><br /><br />If you enjoyed this video by Adrian Murdoch, check out his book on The Emperors of Rome; <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I47PDJE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=B00I47PDJE&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-21&amp;linkId=QOXI26HRM6DYMZTF" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">Kindle UK</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;field-keywords=adrian%20murdoch%20emperors%20of%20rome&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;tag=phdiva-20&amp;url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;linkId=O4XHPY2ADILCYJBU" target="_blank">Kindle US</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=phdiva-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, etc</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-82659594908544881352015-03-25T14:23:00.001+00:002015-03-25T14:23:11.709+00:00Archaeology BeefcakeThe Tumblr might have vanished, but someone on Twitter dug up this via the WaybackMachine ... ;-)<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20140709051157/http://archaeologybeefcake.tumblr.com/">Archaeology Beefcake</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8xGOFmALEAs/VRLEkerZ_LI/AAAAAAAALkc/D0tXEZOLbEA/s1600/Screenshot_5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8xGOFmALEAs/VRLEkerZ_LI/AAAAAAAALkc/D0tXEZOLbEA/s1600/Screenshot_5.png" height="532" width="640" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-61955684750595663072015-03-25T10:55:00.001+00:002015-03-25T10:55:42.221+00:00Katerina Peristeri Lecture in London<a href="http://www.eugreeka.com/amphipolis-the-excavations-of-the-casta-tomb">Amphipolis: The Excavations of the Casta Tomb</a>: “Amphipolis” The Excavations of the Casta Tomb<br /><br />An illustrated lecture in English by Katerina Peristeri, head Archaeologist of prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Serres, Macedonia, Greece.<br /><br />Free entry; booking essential by 14 May on 07904 086677 or at sec@macedonia.org.uk.<br /><br />Organised by the Macedonian Society of Great Britain.<br /><br />Hellenic Centre, Great Hall,<br />16-18 Paddington Street,<br />London W1U 5AS<div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-38414028570835453892015-03-21T08:11:00.001+00:002015-03-21T08:11:23.079+00:00Blog Love: JSTOR DailyIf you don't follow JSTOR Daily, you've been missing out on one of the most interesting blogs out there. For example, who can resist a post explaining:<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://daily.jstor.org/ghostbusters-changed-way-speak/" target="_blank">How "Ghostbusters" Changed the Way We Speak | JSTOR Daily</a><br /><br /><br /><br />And <i>yes, of course</i> Ghostbusters influenced the name LootBusters as I wanted something catchy people would remember. <div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-66898649622192015282015-03-20T10:20:00.001+00:002015-03-20T10:20:47.749+00:00Dining and Roman Luxury, The Getty<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-12GXdKLMKtQ/VPCZXWZWNsI/AAAAAAAALN4/Emh2zcjXav8/s1600/gm_327385F8V1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-12GXdKLMKtQ/VPCZXWZWNsI/AAAAAAAALN4/Emh2zcjXav8/s1600/gm_327385F8V1.jpg" height="120" width="200" /></a></div>Passover is coming up, and whilst I don't want to get involved in the debate about whether Jesus' Last Supper was a Jewish Passover, there is one point that strikes me every year.<br /><br />Every Passover the youngest of the group asks the Four Questions as part of the religious rituals at the dinner table, the last of which is:<br /><br />"On every other night we eat whilst sitting upright, but on this night we dine reclining Why?"<br /><br />The simple answer given is that on that night we Jews celebrate freedom from Egyptian slavery, and that in earlier dining rituals slaves did not recline, but on that night we celebrate our freedom by reclining as real Roman lords at the table. Of course, this is the 21st century, but even in the 20th I have never actually attended a Passover Seder where the guests reclined. The "acceptance" of the question and answer is a universal part of the ritual, but the actual reclining is theoretical and went out centuries ago.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9CkOMKV3pjc/VQsM5Xk66jI/AAAAAAAALbk/EJG5Nc0s5us/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9CkOMKV3pjc/VQsM5Xk66jI/AAAAAAAALbk/EJG5Nc0s5us/s1600/1.jpg" height="186" width="320" /></a></div>There is no Passover link to the Berthouville Treasure currently on show at the Getty. But I did find it interesting that much of the treasure was probably made in Gallo-Roman workshops specifically to be dedicated to Mercury in the later 2nd and early 3rd centuries BC ... except for the very finest pieces, which were dedicated by Q. Domitius Tutus, and which I will blog separately. As well as being of much higher quality - some of the finest surviving ancient silver wares - these items were made outside the area, probably in Italy, and were already rather old when dedicated (picture 2). This has led to them being described as "family heirlooms" because of their stupendous quality, but part of me wonders whether they were not just bullion too, the importance of their dedication more related to the weight of their silver than their intrinsic artistic value.<br /><br />The other point is to differentiate between "old" and "heirlooms" - because too many of us discuss "Rome" or "Antiquity" as if it had been one monolithic block, but in fact dining habits changed dramatically over the years both in terms of how the diners arranged themselves physically at the table and in terms of the items they used at the table.<br /><br />To quote Ken Lapatin's brilliant book accompanying the exhibition (p. 33): "The treasure testifies to the almost complete disappearance of <i>scyphi</i> and <i>canthari</i> (two types of cups) in the second century in favor of shapes that continued in vogue until the end of antiquity." He writes about the later dedications, but interestingly at roughly the same period there were significant architectural changes taking place in Roman dining rooms - as well as those who preferred to dine "old style" for centuries in the same slightly archaising manner as Late Antique consuls being depicted wearing togas even though those had long gone out of style for actual wearing.<br /><br />For the move from the three-couch <i>triclinium</i> to the semi-circular couch <em>stibadium</em>, around the same period as the majority of the Berthouville Treasure was probably dedicated, this Getty Education blog post is worth looking at: <a href="http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/reclining-and-dining-and-drinking-in-ancient-rome/" target="_blank">Reclining and Dining (and Drinking) in Ancient Rome | The Getty Iris</a> (NB this is my suggestion, in this post, to correlate the dates, not theirs, so don't blame them for it!)<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ncsztc5y7ks/VQsMt3tFL-I/AAAAAAAALbc/7jRpnek-GCA/s1600/2%2Bb%2Bcatacomb-sdomitilla-thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ncsztc5y7ks/VQsMt3tFL-I/AAAAAAAALbc/7jRpnek-GCA/s1600/2%2Bb%2Bcatacomb-sdomitilla-thumb.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>The villas around Vesuvius provide beautiful evidence for dining before AD 79, but many later depictions of dining that survive are of the Last Supper. The earliest Christian images of dining are not the actual Last Supper but rather of the communal <i>agape</i> meals which were an integral part of Early Christian society (left).<br /><br />The great early Last Supper at Ravenna, ca AD 500 (below) of course shows Jesus and his Apostles dining reclining. But was it necessarily anachronistic and archaising, the way later Medieval versions of it were?<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zh8J751CvUc/VQsMtCNfz_I/AAAAAAAALbU/vhD0g6BoV9o/s1600/2%2Bb%2Bravenna%2Bca%2B500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zh8J751CvUc/VQsMtCNfz_I/AAAAAAAALbU/vhD0g6BoV9o/s1600/2%2Bb%2Bravenna%2Bca%2B500.jpg" height="504" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IqVFO_VYxKY/VQsM6GB1TlI/AAAAAAAALbo/E44bascCsXs/s1600/3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IqVFO_VYxKY/VQsM6GB1TlI/AAAAAAAALbo/E44bascCsXs/s1600/3.png" height="189" width="320" /></a></div>There are earlier images of people seated whilst "dining" but those seem to be either outdoor 'picnics' or religious rituals or archaeological evidence for 'lower class' individuals at bars, but ... This mosaic in the Bardo from Carthage, probably dating to the mid 4th century AD (image <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MBnsYuC_rIYC&amp;pg=PA263&amp;lpg=PA263&amp;dq=duar-ech-chott+mosaik&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=16__O-QesN&amp;sig=3S67fbRlIXJftiH1eCHtfOxNtg0&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=P7YKVcD-FNjravzbgrgE&amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" target="_blank">from The Roman Banquet: Images of Conviviality<span class="a-size-small a-color-secondary">, </span><span class="a-size-small a-color-secondary">by </span></a><span class="a-size-small a-color-secondary"><a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MBnsYuC_rIYC&amp;pg=PA263&amp;lpg=PA263&amp;dq=duar-ech-chott+mosaik&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=16__O-QesN&amp;sig=3S67fbRlIXJftiH1eCHtfOxNtg0&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=P7YKVcD-FNjravzbgrgE&amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" target="_blank">Katherine M. D. Dunbabin fig. 47</a>) is the first certain scene showing members of the ruling class eating whilst seated. Dunbadin's date around 350 AD is interesting as the great cultural change of the period was of course Constantine's legalisation of Christianity and it subsequently becoming the state religion (others had dated it to ca AD 400). I cannot help wondering whether the move from reclining to sitting was linked to this.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span class="a-size-small a-color-secondary">Descriptions of reclining diners largely faded from 3rd century literary descriptions, but that was a time of political chaos, and the archaeological record shows that villas continued to be constructed with couches so seated did not become the norm then.</span><br /><span class="a-size-small a-color-secondary"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vowZvLMOv7I/VQsNDri4XiI/AAAAAAAALb8/8Be-zP9amVg/s1600/3b.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vowZvLMOv7I/VQsNDri4XiI/AAAAAAAALb8/8Be-zP9amVg/s1600/3b.png" height="232" width="640" /></a></div><br />In fact, although "Germanic" people seem to have preferred eating seated on chairs during the Empire, by the Late Antique and Byzantine periods there had been a back-lash against this. Although the sanctuary of Mercury is believed to have been destroyed in the Germanic invasions of the Empire, and the nearby villa, probably of its priests (?) would probably also have ceased to operated around the same time, other Gallo-Roman villas in the area continued to emphasise Roman-style dining and use couches, as has been shown in the archaeological record. By the period of Theodosius, who commissioned the Ravenna Last Supper above, the Germans had become more Roman than the Romans, so he, for example, revived the image of the Lupercalia, and embraced pre-Christian Roman institutions, including dining on couches. Even the Vandals who took Carthage like to recline and dine, as an account by Procopius of Guntharis' dinner there in AD 546 makes clear; the proconsul's residence went so retro that they skipped the semi-circular <em>stibadium</em> shown in Christian art and went back to the three couch <i>triclinium</i>!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tByRDcKbMSY/VQsNGy2eB5I/AAAAAAAALcE/OmGl168Y8Iw/s1600/5.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tByRDcKbMSY/VQsNGy2eB5I/AAAAAAAALcE/OmGl168Y8Iw/s1600/5.png" height="109" width="200" /></a></div>The history of how the Romans and Byzantines dined is complicated, because they didn't all choose to do the same thing the same way. This c. 1080 fresco from Capua was almost certainly anachronistic, as was the depiction from the later Pala D'Oro in San Marco, each influenced by earlier depictions, neither showing contemporary practices - just as the line we recite at Passover each year bears no relation whatsoever to how we are all arranged at the Seder table. From ca AD 400, as parts of Gaul increasingly fell increasingly to Germanic "war lords" ... the archaeological record shows that both these new local rulers and their 'nobles' in fact embraced older Roman dining practices. Literary records confirm this, with the 5th century Christian Bishops of Ravenna not only dining <i>a la Romaine</i> on couches, but with Bishop Neon commissioning an old-fashioned <i>stibadium </i>dining room for his new episcopal palace. As the Franks became the Merovingians, and kings of France, they also embraced Roman dining - for the men, women seem to have been seated, which was of course an even old idea abandoned by the Romans many centuries before.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s_8KPz4564I/VQsNJQRLT8I/AAAAAAAALcM/d7LQ-XSe2Ok/s1600/5b%2Bpala%2Bd%27oro%2Bsan%2Bmarco.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s_8KPz4564I/VQsNJQRLT8I/AAAAAAAALcM/d7LQ-XSe2Ok/s1600/5b%2Bpala%2Bd'oro%2Bsan%2Bmarco.png" height="632" width="640" /></a></div><br />I'll blog more about the actual objects in a series of posts, but I just wanted to mention their 'dining' context not just their dedicatory one.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DuDvFBoNWk8/VQsNcn9vjqI/AAAAAAAALcU/bB3anim1TXM/s1600/6%2Bsilver%2Bbook.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DuDvFBoNWk8/VQsNcn9vjqI/AAAAAAAALcU/bB3anim1TXM/s1600/6%2Bsilver%2Bbook.png" height="200" width="163" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/ancient_luxury/" target="_blank">Ancient Luxury and the Roman Silver Treasure from Berthouville</a><span class="exhibition-date"><strong></strong></span></b><span class="hide-for-small inline">, </span>is at the Getty Villa until August 17th 2015, then it will be on tour.</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="exhibition-location"><strong></strong></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">The book accompanying the exhibition is very good and worth picking up a copy of: </span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1606064207/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=1606064207&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-21&amp;linkId=KVTBX25Q5WTSM23V" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">The Berthouville Silver Treasure and Roman Luxury</a> (Amazon UK); </span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1606064207/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1606064207&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-20&amp;linkId=6BZWBYQOYFGSBHBS" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">The Berthouville Silver Treasure and Roman Luxury</a> (Amazon US), and the usual places.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bethouville silver photographs courtesy of Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des monnaies, médailles et antiques, Paris, via The Getty.</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-55792466432599759082015-03-19T08:22:00.001+00:002015-03-19T08:22:14.576+00:00Very Funny ...<a href="http://www.demilked.com/fake-self-help-books-prank-bookstore-obvious-plant-jeff-wysaski/">Prankster Puts Fake Self-Help Books At A Local Bookstore | DeMilked</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x1UHgObhRVQ/VQqHJ1V_ICI/AAAAAAAALbA/GFoBknSAvBU/s1600/fake-self-help-books-prank-bookstore-jeff-wysaski-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x1UHgObhRVQ/VQqHJ1V_ICI/AAAAAAAALbA/GFoBknSAvBU/s1600/fake-self-help-books-prank-bookstore-jeff-wysaski-1.jpg" height="640" width="476" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-40885099615586419622015-03-18T13:00:00.000+00:002015-03-20T08:53:43.205+00:00Hellenistic Bronzes: Pride ... and Prejudices<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Jens Daehner&nbsp;and Kenneth Lapatin of the&nbsp;J. Paul Getty Museum&nbsp;in Los Angeles have curated the most extraordinarily brilliant exhibition on Hellenistic Bronzes, currently at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, of which both they and the museum should be immensely proud. The catalogue for the Italian portion of the exhibition also looks fabulous, although my copies were immediately ‘borrowed’ by friends, so I have not yet been&nbsp;able to read the essays by&nbsp;many luminaries of the field, although Lapatin, Carol C. Mattusch and Sophie Descamps-Lequime very kindly let me tag along as they went around it. (Obviously any dubious ideas or dodgy theories are entirely my own, and not their fault).<br /><br />The exhibition is full of exquisite sculptures which would make any ancient Greek proud of their bronzes, but in this first blog post about the exhibition I’d like to discuss some of the more banal works&nbsp;– sculptures against which I admit I tend to be slightly prejudiced. Other posts will discuss the greater works in the Palazzo Strozzi show, and then during the summer works which will join the exhibition in California. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4HfRa_J6CKM/VQgru7l9FYI/AAAAAAAALT4/SVmnOxnH2YU/s1600/3.08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4HfRa_J6CKM/VQgru7l9FYI/AAAAAAAALT4/SVmnOxnH2YU/s1600/3.08.jpg" height="490" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/43.11.4" target="_blank">Sleeping Eros. III-II C BC</a>, bronze, cm 41,9 x 85,2 x 35,6, cm 45,7, with&nbsp;base. New York,&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund 1943, 43.11.4&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(in the Palazzo Strozzi exhibiton; image courtesy of them)</span></div><div></div><div>My first ‘prejudice’ is a personal&nbsp;one, and&nbsp;against these sleeping cupids or putti. When I first went around the exhibition I ignored it. The reason why is simple; whilst Michelangelo is known to have made copies of ancient sculptures, every country house in England seems to have a badly re-carved ancient one of these in marble, which they now insist is not Hadrianic but by the great Michelangelo. It gets a little boring. This bronze in the Met is however a beautiful sculpture well worth looking at again, with the feathers of Cupid’s wings, and his tubby little sleeping limbs showing how good Hellenistic bronzes from high quality workshops could be.</div><div></div><div>When it comes to ancient statues of “famous” types reworked in the later Hellenistic and Roman periods, the quality can be highly variable. Scholars from the Renaissance period onwards tended to read Pliny and see them as fabulous works, sculptures that could be lost originals or at least help us restore their original appearance. Nowadays they are being recongnised as having been less “great art” and more furniture, decorative pastiches of the often kitsch variety still produced for “interior designers” of little taste today, and that would not have looked out of place in Saddam’s or Gadhafi's palaces.&nbsp; </div><div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RyJhLP4zypg/VQgrhEIdDLI/AAAAAAAALTo/esvkUyQxqC0/s1600/7.01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RyJhLP4zypg/VQgrhEIdDLI/AAAAAAAALTo/esvkUyQxqC0/s1600/7.01.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>Two archaising bronze Apollos, brought together for the first time, illustrate this point perfectly, and that is why I have, unusually, chosen to first blog about the pieces in the exhibition that I dislike ... but which were also the most interesting from an educational point of view.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Apollo (Apollo di Piombino). ca 120-100 BC; bronze, copper, silver; cm 117 x 42 x 42. Paris, Musée du Louvre, département&nbsp; des&nbsp;Antiquités grecques, étrusques et romaines, inv. Br 2 (in the Palazzo Strozzi exhibiton; image courtesy of them)</span><br /><br />The earlier and finer of these two archaising&nbsp;“Apollos” is the Piombino Apollo found in the sea in 1832, and which entered the <a href="http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/apollo-piombino)" target="_blank">Louvre in 1835</a>. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ysSFLsQKtD4/VQgriFg8e5I/AAAAAAAALTs/hIwU5Ojf1c0/s1600/7.01b.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ysSFLsQKtD4/VQgriFg8e5I/AAAAAAAALTs/hIwU5Ojf1c0/s1600/7.01b.png" height="640" width="490" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>When the mud and assorted marine excretions were removed there, an even more startling discovery&nbsp;– one so unexpected that it was at the time dismissed as fakery by the archaeologist&nbsp;– was made: a lead strip, now broken into three pieces, was removed via the statue’s eyes naming in Greek&nbsp;the sculptors who had created it:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gcBVyuB97ug/VQh-KW-VeWI/AAAAAAAALaI/MUXYDYTl7-k/s1600/Screenshot_3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gcBVyuB97ug/VQh-KW-VeWI/AAAAAAAALaI/MUXYDYTl7-k/s1600/Screenshot_3.png" height="256" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>The diagram comes from&nbsp;p. 357&nbsp;of Sterling Dow’s old Hesperia article available <a href="http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/146666.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.</div><div></div><div>the style of the letters seems to suggest the first century BC, and in conjunction with better understanding of both techniques and styles of ancient bronzes we now know that the Piombino is not an Archaic original as once thought, but rather a good quality later Hellenistic imitation made by a known school of Rhodian sculptors. The silvered inscription on the foot suggests that it was originally dedicated to Athena soon after being made, and was being shipped to Italy at some later period when the ship carrying it sank. We know from examples excavated around Vesuvius as well as literary references that ancient Greek bronzes were also faked and sold off to Romans as genuine “Archaic” sculptures too, so there is a possibility that the ancient Roman buyer of this piece thought he was buying a ‘kosher’ ancient sculpture and not just an Archaising work of the later period. </div><div><br /></div><div>In 1977 a similar statue of an archaising Apollo was found at Pompeii in the villa of C. Julius Polybius, and based on photographs the two were soon ‘associated’ ... the slight scandal of the Pompeian piece is that it was excavated with tendrils which probably held a wooden tray, and so its nature as a piece of decorative furniture in a fancy Roman house could not be denied. </div><div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mTTCuIeDy8A/VQgr2qh-drI/AAAAAAAALUI/SSntNL4gj60/s1600/7.02-testa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mTTCuIeDy8A/VQgr2qh-drI/AAAAAAAALUI/SSntNL4gj60/s1600/7.02-testa.jpg" height="640" width="476" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3NOnlf36jiI/VQgr1AaPPwI/AAAAAAAALUA/F_ImrMpa6JI/s1600/8.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3NOnlf36jiI/VQgr1AaPPwI/AAAAAAAALUA/F_ImrMpa6JI/s1600/8.png" height="114" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;">Apollo (Kouros). 1st century BC or AD; bronze, copper, bone, dark stone, glass; cm 128 x 33 x 38. Pompei, Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Pompei, Ercolano e Stabia, inv. 22924 (in the Palazzo Strozzi exhibiton; image courtesy of them)</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JpqCQQrW7hk/VQh74vIwswI/AAAAAAAALZs/1ah6cX8pRZI/s1600/Screenshot_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JpqCQQrW7hk/VQh74vIwswI/AAAAAAAALZs/1ah6cX8pRZI/s1600/Screenshot_2.png" height="640" width="548" /></a></div><br />Bringing the two statues together, which are of slightly different heights and stylistically not quite as similar as they initially were assumed to be, is one of the great joys of an exhibition such as this one. When the two Apollos stand next to each other, it is clear that they differ enough to not be assigned to the same workshop, and they show how one (the Piombino example) could have been made as a votive offering for a Greek sanctuary, but that the other was clearly made as a slightly ostentatious decorative ‘objet’ for a Roman who wanted the decorative&nbsp;‘style’ of ancient Greece, not ‘art’ necessarily. This was sculpture one could probably order by the set, whether for the house or the garden, the ancient equivalent of buying books by the yard for their decorative bindings. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X838RA_Je70/VQgsM5zKqtI/AAAAAAAALUY/7B86yLrEC1I/s1600/gaza1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X838RA_Je70/VQgsM5zKqtI/AAAAAAAALUY/7B86yLrEC1I/s1600/gaza1.jpg" height="113" width="200" /></a></div>Some bronze furnishings based on Greek sculptures in the Roman period were of high quality, and can be evidence for the now lost original masterpieces, but others were not. Although connoisseurship is currently out of fashion, and the trend is to study all archaeology as "material culture" and being equally important ... differentiating good and bad copies is key to reconstructing the originals, as is accepting that bronzes could be and were mass produced in Antiquity. We know these "copies" varied and since bronzes were easier for workshops to adapt than marbles as well as easier to produce, this should also be taken into account.<br /><br />Another good example of kitsch archaising furnishings a la Romaine - and of my own prejudices - is the Gaza Apollo (not in the exhibition). It first came to attention when (possibly Hamas) tried to list it for sale on eBay (with local collection only!). The story told - that it had been found in the sea - was clearly false, and my own prejudice against it was mostly because of that (ie if they're lying about where it came from, what else where they lying about?). The furniture aspect was another prejudice - so the Gaza Apollo <i>probably </i>is a genuine Roman bronze of archaising style, and probably served some sort of decorative function in a Roman seaside villa, but it is more likely to have been found whilst digging into the ground there than in the sea. Another strange story associated with this Gaza bronze was the finger being hacked off and taken to a jeweler as they thought it was made of gold - this is probably as many ancient bronzes were gilded to enhance their bling factor, and we can thus assume that some of the gold survived on this example.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0fB1MtyfoOE/VQgsMLHrU-I/AAAAAAAALUQ/OTBiP8GQKrY/s1600/gaza%2Bsmurf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0fB1MtyfoOE/VQgsMLHrU-I/AAAAAAAALUQ/OTBiP8GQKrY/s1600/gaza%2Bsmurf.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xG-eNfP2tn0/VQh5HlXIdFI/AAAAAAAALYo/f31REt7elPQ/s1600/DSC02598.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xG-eNfP2tn0/VQh5HlXIdFI/AAAAAAAALYo/f31REt7elPQ/s1600/DSC02598.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>With lower quality Roman replicas it is easy to identify them; the problems are greater when it comes to higher quality ones, as then too many scholars make the assumption that the higher the quality, the earlier the date ... an assumption that this Hellenistic Bronzes exhibition shows is clearly erroneous.<br /><br />The Marathon Boy in Athens (not in the exhibition) is a good example of the issue. The bronze is a work of high quality, so since it was found in 1925 it has been labelled a Greek 'original' of the 330s BC. <br /><br />His left hand is however slightly problematic.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nQeY_Q65TLc/VQh5lj_mjnI/AAAAAAAALY4/bsBC3p09PQc/s1600/DSC02601.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nQeY_Q65TLc/VQh5lj_mjnI/AAAAAAAALY4/bsBC3p09PQc/s1600/DSC02601.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>"Obviously" this is "original" and he held a phiale in his hand was one explanation; another is that he was reworked by those naughty Romans and the hole to hold something dates from their barbarity ... The more I look at it, the more I suspect that it was a first century BC or later Greek work based on an earlier Greek sculpture, rather than a 4th century original, created by a Greek workshop for the flourishing export market. Whilst when it comes to marble copies we acknowledge that Greeks had a thriving market producing and exporting imitations of earlier works, for some reason we still seem to have a mental "block" when it comes to bronzes in assuming they didn't do the same thing with them. If anything bronze was easier to produce copies in, and Pliny's (probably slightly hyperbolic) statistics suggests that there were thousands of these in Roman cities.<br /><br />The Marathon Boy is a nice sculpture, but I believe that Greek bronzes were exceptional not just 'good' - as the finds being made by the Underwater Ephoria show increasingly - and that makes me question the date and wonder whether <i>this</i> quality might not be Roman instead.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KTa3dl7KCxk/VQh6LiDRASI/AAAAAAAALZI/6DjjrmYkUaQ/s1600/z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KTa3dl7KCxk/VQh6LiDRASI/AAAAAAAALZI/6DjjrmYkUaQ/s1600/z.jpg" height="640" width="468" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The famous 'Idolino' in the Palazzo Strozzi show is a good example of a work once considered an ancient original of genius, but now seen as interesting for having been found in the Renaissance and been influential on many artists - for example the Bronzino drawing below - but now considered a nice Roman copy of a Greek Ephebe but little more.</span> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ephebe (Idolino di Pesaro), 30&nbsp;BC circa; bronze, con agemine in lamina di rame e aggiunte in piombo; cm 148. Firenze, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, inv. 1637 (in the Palazzo Strozzi exhibiton; image courtesy of them)</span></div><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The statue still stands on its huge Renaissance base, looking ridiculously important ... but oddly enough the Palazzo Strozzi chose not to exhibit it with the various bronze attachments found with it (photo below).</span></span> The attachments below, which were associated with his left hand, and probably formed a garland around him like the similar but much smaller Ephebe found in the House of Marcus Fabius Rufus at Pompeii, make it clear that he was more slightly cheesy interior design in the house of a slightly nouveau Roman and less 'great' art ... I suspect that's why the Florence Archaeological Museum insisted on keeping him on his elaborate Renaissance base, but not sending along these integral ancient parts of the 'work' to the Palazzo Strozzi:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_2vBUrpsGrM/VQh6EkUYYiI/AAAAAAAALZA/noeED_yHzwA/s1600/IMG_2968.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_2vBUrpsGrM/VQh6EkUYYiI/AAAAAAAALZA/noeED_yHzwA/s1600/IMG_2968.PNG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R8E0uiw6iuQ/VQh6OJlEjzI/AAAAAAAALZQ/UwyH51IW6Y8/s1600/Screenshot_22.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R8E0uiw6iuQ/VQh6OJlEjzI/AAAAAAAALZQ/UwyH51IW6Y8/s1600/Screenshot_22.png" height="640" width="388" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YRH-9YN_rTg/VQh6StS0WxI/AAAAAAAALZY/iWl6wB9RAg4/s1600/IMG_2963.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YRH-9YN_rTg/VQh6StS0WxI/AAAAAAAALZY/iWl6wB9RAg4/s1600/IMG_2963.PNG" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>Without the attachments, the Idolino is a "work of art" presented on the base to show how it has been greatly appreciated since it was found in 1530. With those attachments, it is clear that it was just a decorative knick-knack to the Romans, in the same genre as this tree-shaped bronze candelabrum, a detail of which shows that it too was of high quality, and would probably have been ordered from the same sorts of craftsmen that produced those Apollo tray-holders.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-keAL_oeySuc/VQh6Y2xtp2I/AAAAAAAALZg/PA1LILJmJSw/s1600/IMG_2964.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-keAL_oeySuc/VQh6Y2xtp2I/AAAAAAAALZg/PA1LILJmJSw/s1600/IMG_2964.PNG" height="640" width="640" /></a></div><br />I realise that covering the exhibits I liked least in the exhibition is a little like children eating their vegetables first to get them "out of the way" but ... in many ways I found this aspect of the exhibition the most illuminating. More blog posts will cover the better bronzes.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The exhibition runs until the 15th June at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence: <a href="http://www.palazzostrozzi.org/mostre/potere-e-pathos/" target="_blank"><b>Potere e Pathos</b></a>. It will transfer to The Getty as <a href="http://www.getty.edu/visit/exhibitions/future.html" target="_blank"><b>Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World</b></a> with slightly different items included from July 28–November 1, 2015, before moving on to the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.<br /><br />The English and Italian editions of the Palazzo Strozzi exhibition catalogue do not appear to be easy to order online, but the Getty edition with the same photographs and text can be pre-ordered from the usual places: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1606064398/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=1606064398&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-21&amp;linkId=3SN5QOL3CCOSY5U7" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World</a> (Amazon UK), <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1606064398/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1606064398&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-20&amp;linkId=XKYBGJT2O346CSQC" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World</a> (Amazon US) etc.<br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-39433928531473440422015-03-14T08:33:00.001+00:002015-03-20T08:53:56.476+00:00Hellenistic Bronzes at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The exhibition is officially open today and they very kindly let me see it yesterday. Proper blog post to follow, but this is an amazing exhibition very much worth seeing in Florence, then again later at The Getty and subsequently at the National Gallery in DC when slightly different pieces will be included such as the Croatian bronze and the Thracian head.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-skUVF65dB3w/VQPxLZ1qNEI/AAAAAAAALPw/WvxrEPjCZEc/s1600/gm_341511EX1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-skUVF65dB3w/VQPxLZ1qNEI/AAAAAAAALPw/WvxrEPjCZEc/s1600/gm_341511EX1.jpg" height="640" width="372" /></a></div><br /><br />At the Strozzi, L'Arringatore is amongst the many beautiful bronzes on loan from Florence Archaeological Museum, including the Medici Horse, the Arezzo Athena and the Idolino. For those worried that the Archaeological Museum is denuded, they currently have the most incredible exhibition of finds from Etruscan tombs, Lorenzo de Medici's coins and cameos restored by Cellini are on display and from the 20th they will have a related exhibition on small bronzes.<br /><br />The exhibition previously at Cluny on Medieval Travel also opens at the Bargello on the 20th, and I assume will also include that amazing scroll of the Peutinger Map - so for those interested in Antiquity this is the perfect time to visit Florence and Fiesole.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-4312618150816160952015-03-11T11:00:00.000+00:002015-03-11T11:00:02.782+00:00Today In 222: Elagabalus Died<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Elagabalus was a Severan emperor but also part of the royal family of Emesa, modern Homs in Syria. As such, he served as the priest-king of <i>El-Gebal</i>, aka <i>Elagabal</i>, an Aramaic cult that was arguably monotheistic. Emesa was a small theocratic city-state that remained a client-kingdom of Rome until quite late so although we don't know who all the rulers were, we have a surprising amount of information about them covering several centuries. For example Drusilla of Mauretania was descended from Cleopatra VII, and married Gaius Julius Sohaemus and bore a son Alexio II; centuries later Zenobia claimed descent from Cleopatra through them.<br /><br />Elagabalus was unable to cope with being being a priest and an emperor.&nbsp; He went through five wives and two husbands before being assassinated at 18.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/oU1c44GywFA" width="640"></iframe><br /><br /><br />If you enjoyed this video by Adrian Murdoch, check out his book on The Emperors of Rome; <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00I47PDJE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=19450&amp;creativeASIN=B00I47PDJE&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=phdiva-21&amp;linkId=QOXI26HRM6DYMZTF" id="static_txt_preview" target="_blank">Kindle UK</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;field-keywords=adrian%20murdoch%20emperors%20of%20rome&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;tag=phdiva-20&amp;url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;linkId=O4XHPY2ADILCYJBU" target="_blank">Kindle US</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=phdiva-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, etc </div><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8217461118190399919.post-71849919500142706672015-03-10T10:00:00.000+00:002015-03-10T10:00:01.069+00:00Today In 213: Claudius II Gothicus Born<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The emperor who defeated the Goths, hence his nickname, he was &#39;barbarian&#39; born and rose through the ranks of the army. He may have been responsible for the martyrdom of St Valentine, and was so well respected that the Constantinian dynasty later claimed to be descended from his family (<span class="reference-text"><a href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;ved=0CCMQFjAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fpenelope.uchicago.edu%2FThayer%2FE%2FRoman%2FTexts%2FHistoria_Augusta%2FClaudius*.html&amp;ei=cRAgVL3lL-3B7Aa-n4DwCg&amp;usg=AFQjCNFyWKq3hj8GLhAJ1d4rPk-U5SejFQ&amp;sig2=gXLYTMUsIrfdjplHIB0mAQ&amp;bvm=bv.75775273,d.ZGU&amp;cad=rja" target="_blank"><i>Historia Augusta</i>, Claudius, 13:2</a>).</span><br><br><span class="reference-text">From an art historial point of view he is fascinating as two gilded bronze portraits of him survive from the Capitolium in Brescia:</span><br><span class="reference-text"><br></span><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--mEEkmP1IRs/VCARbBL3lbI/AAAAAAAAJRY/IS1Nqo7v_s0/s1600/360px-5305-Brescia-SGiulia-Ritratto_di_Claudio_II_Gotico_o_Aureliano-scontornata_png.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--mEEkmP1IRs/VCARbBL3lbI/AAAAAAAAJRY/IS1Nqo7v_s0/s1600/360px-5305-Brescia-SGiulia-Ritratto_di_Claudio_II_Gotico_o_Aureliano-scontornata_png.png" height="640" width="384"></a></div><br></div><a href="http://phdiva.blogspot.com/2015/03/today-in-213-claudius-ii-gothicus-born.html#more">I want to know more ... -»</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">click here to continue reading this post</div>Dorothy Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09820009282218419179noreply@blogger.com0